Category Archives: LEGO

You’d probably expect a lot of the posts on a LEGO website like The Brothers Brick to be about LEGO, and you’d be right. If you’re browsing this page, you might want to consider narrowing what you’re looking for by checking out categories like “Space” and “Castle.” We’re sure there’s something here that’ll fascinate and amaze you.

Small columns never looked so good

Here at TBB, we feature all sorts of incredible LEGO builds from all sorts of incredible builders. We’ve seen equally awesome techniques on tiny creations as we have on giant ones. We’ve also seen hundreds of superb towers, pillars, and columns, and in fact, several of them are from this same builder, Ralf Langer. But I particularly appreciate these pillars, at this scale, because Ralf uses simple techniques to produce something awesome. Twisting the internal structure to alternate those pentagonal tiles is truly eye-catching. And the rest just sets it off perfectly.

There are several cool techniques here, but I’m sure plenty of us are making a mental note right now about those columns. I see you over there, trying to consider the reverse engineering so you can borrow it later! Just make sure to give him credit, and while you’re at it, take a moment to appreciate some of Ralf’s other builds.

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The inn in the forest

After a long day walking through the woods, a place of rest is the one thing you’ll need. Perhaps “The Peaceful Shrub” Inn would suit you well, created by LEGO builder Jesse van den Oetelaar. Meanwhile, I’m resting my eyes on one of the most lovely little cottage inns I have ever seen. I admire Jesse’s use of color in the plants, the path leading to the inn, and the inn itself. I can spot four different uses of green, all of which work perfectly in this build. The bricking that makes up the inn is especially detailed, with dark tan and sand tan colors referencing the patchwork style of many fantasy world buildings.

I also like the barrels of ale next to the feasting minifigures. I hope the chickens walking about don’t mind that chicken is also what’s on the table!

The back of the inn is stuffed with plant life. The pine tree and the large leafy tree are some of the best examples of greenery that you can find. The way these tree trunks are designed helps show the unevenness of the bark while pulling your eyes upwards towards the foliage. The mix of flowers and shrubbery is likely what gives “The Peaceful Shrub” Inn its name.

SHIPtember starts earlier every year.

It’s that time of year again. The pool toys are being replaced by school supplies. The pumpkin spice cravings are growing more powerful. And the thoughts of LEGO fans are turning to SHIPtember. Every September, LEGO builders across the world create original spaceship builds using a Seriously Huge Investment of Parts. (Hence the ‘SHIP’ in ‘SHIPtember.’) This year, Jason Corlett has begun warming up his seriously huge shipbuilding skills with The Revolt, heavy-duty craft sporting tons of detail and cool play features.

With its twin front pylons and the angled rear section, the Revolt would look at home in any big-budget sci-fi franchise. In addition to the boatloads of tech detailing, the Revolt is packing retractable landing gear, a full interior with a bridge, and two cannons on each side that rotate together with the turn of a dial. Check out the video of everything in action below, and let us know if you’re planning your own SHIPtember crafts this year.

Celebrate Bionicle’s 20th anniversary with a map of Mata Nui island made from pieces of the LEGO 31203 World Map [News]

Today LEGO fans come together to celebrate the LEGO Bionicle theme that ended its run in 2010. Since then, August 10th or 8/10 in American date notation format is bestowed by fans to be 810NICLE day. Builders and designers commemorate their much-beloved franchise with builds, art, and varied ways to revive their love for the theme. Joining the celebrations, LEGO designer Nicolas Vás used LEGO elements from the 31203 World Map and transformed it into a map of Mata Nui island, the locale for the early years of Bionicle adventures.

Continue reading →

A micro monastery nestled in the rocks

There’s a lot more to this tiny build than a monastery on some rocks. In fact, the building isn’t its best feature! Talented LEGO builder Roanoke Handybuck did a great job at interlacing those light bluish grey elements to form the rocky outcropping. The pink flowers attached to reddish brown horns and minifigure hands are a superb fit too. But perhaps the most clever aspect is the use of only 3 pieces – two crowbars and a hotdog element – to try and recreate a Japanese torii archway.

If you like this, you should stick around and see more of Roanoke’s Handybuck’s handy-work.

Gundam adversary is ready for a fight

The Zaku mech is an iconic staple in the Gundam franchise. Here, we can see builder Two Rabbits has created an advanced version, inspired by the Gundam Thunderbolt series. Enveloped in two shades of green with hints of orange and dark grey, the model has a colour scheme accurate to the original mech design. While the broad spiked shoulders provide the build with an aggressive look, the mech also has defensive options with arm shields attached to its backpack. The large amount of orange cones, scattered across the model, represent thrusters used for rapid maneuvers in space. The 1×1 connectors placed on flexible axles is a perfect technique for creating the piping details.

The model has great shaping overall, making its form easily recognisable to mech fans. You can check out more of our articles on mecha related builds here.

A bridge over bloodied waters

The Peninsular War of 1807-1814 saw the forces of Spain, Portugal, and Britain take on Napoleon’s French army in a struggle for control of the Iberian peninsula. Gary Brooks has picked one of the war’s many battles as the subject for his first LEGO creation in two years — and it’s a diorama worth waiting for. The imposing stone bridge over the River Côa plays host to two opposing armies, in a scene over 100 studs in width…

Read on to see more of this spectacular build

The Battle for Heartlake has begun

Ever since the LEGO Friends theme appeared in 2012, I’ve had the stupid idea of Frenemies in my head. Picking up the bricks for the first time in months, I decided to finally take a crack at turning Frenemies into reality. Mech suits are not my forte, and I had to spend ages fiddling with these before I was happy. I found my initial attempts didn’t look like “suits” — the models just looked like ill-proportioned people who just happened to have tiny heads. Much of the focus during building was around the neck and collar areas, trying to get across the impression the minidolls were sitting inside these bigger mechanical contraptions.

Read on for more Frenemies!

Microscale Gothic Revival on the Danube

Architecture and LEGO have gone together for a long time. From Modulex in the 1970s to the more recent LEGO Architecture series, the LEGO group has given us plenty of iconic buildings and skylines. This microscale model of the Hungarian Parliament Building, created by Chris Elliott as a gift for his mother, makes use of various elements to emulate the Gothic Revival style of the original. The spires and arches are achieved with bull horns, claws, and inverted fang plates, while cones and bars are used as towers. The ornate central dome’s features are creatively modeled using an eight-side modified hinge plate with fangs held by bar clips. The symmetrical front façade looks out from the eastern bank of the Danube, which Chris has captured with blue plates and clear tiles running the length of the model.

The north and south lawns frame the western side that houses the official main entrance. As on the other side, inverted fang and teeth plates are used to capture the curved details of the original building’s architecture. Grill bricks are partially recessed below the ground line, creating the effect of lancet windows of different sizes around the building.

I think it is quite touching and inspiring that Chris made this for his mother, an immigrant from Hungary to the United States before the iron curtain fell. I’m sure it was a gift that she cherishes. Feel free to check out some more incredible architecture-inspired builds we’ve covered in the past.

The rise and fall of a LEGO castle in four seasons

Given the challenge of building a castle scene depicting the four seasons, most builders would go the traditional route of spring, summer, fall, and winter… there is nothing wrong with that, but these four builders took a very different approach. A collaboration between Brickleas, Simon Hundsbichler, Jonas Kramm, and Ralf Langer. They each choose a season, and built a partial view of a castle, adding a temporal, metaphorical twist to the seasons, depicting birth in the spring, prime in the summer, decline in the fall and death in the winter.

Keep reading to see more details about each build

Leaving LEGO Masters S2: We sit down with the fifth team to leave [Feature]

The sixth episode of LEGO Masters Season 2 has aired. A new episode means another winning build and unfortunately, another team elimination. After each episode, we’ll be meeting these teams as they continue on their LEGO journey with the show behind them.

We sat down for a talk with the fifth team to leave this season along with our friends from Brickset, BZPower and True North Bricks. We chatted about engineering, building relationships, building on memories and the art of playing well.

Read on, but beware… Spoilers lie ahead!

“Expecto patronum!” in this Harry Potter LEGO build

Raise your wands for this collaborative LEGO build from Protector Of Air. The scene from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is recreated with some creative elements, like the shimmer effect adding to the Patronus and the varied use of leaves for the trees. The blue water complements the greens and grays well. As a LEGO Harry Potter fan, I appreciate that someone was able to use more than one of the plethora of Harry Potter minifigures.